Monday, April 16, 2012

Ernie Banks Prime 9 Home Run Legend: Let's Play Five!

Here is the latest addition to my Ernie Banks Collection:

This is from the Prime 9 Home Run Legends set. The nine card set was available one card per week at hobby shops. You needed to have a redemption card that was in hobby packs of series one. I picked my card up for a buck on Ebay.

Does the picture look familiar?

It's the same one used on this year's Heritage Flashback card.

When I first saw the Flashback card, I was disappointed because I knew immediately that the picture wasn't from 1963. But the picture was one I had never seen before, so I thought at least I could give Topps credit for using a new picture.

When I got the Prime 9 card and recognized the same picture, I decided to do some digging through my other Ernie cards. And then I got real disappointed, because I have seen the picture before, I just didn't realize it. Topps used the picture before...

not once.....

not twice...

but three times in 2001.

After overusing the picture in 2001, Topps wisely put it away for eleven years and now unwisely is going to overuse it again. Look for it again...and again...and again in 2023.

About Me

I am a life-long Cubs fan currently in exile in southern Michigan. I have been collecting baseball cards since the fateful Cubs year of 1969. I took a 15 year break from the hobby and returned in 2008.